Happy Birthday Justin!

I want to start by wishing Justin a very happy birthday!  Since he has to work today we did a little celebrating over the weekend.  I made him homemade ravioli last night and got him a blueberry pie for dessert.  He was able to take Jack to Home Depot on Saturday and picked out a new grill.  On Sunday morning his friend Chuck took him to play a little golf at Top Golf .  He will continue his celebrating this coming weekend with his friend Parker who is coming in from St Louis. 

The past few weeks here have been full of activity.  The week before spring break Jack missed a day of school because he woke up with a terrible cough.  I kept him home and took him to the Dr to see if there was anything major wrong.  He said there wasn't so he went back the last two days before spring break.  While he was on spring break the cough seemed to get better and I though we were in the clear.  We had a few play dates and had family staying with us because of Peyton's birthday party.  The Sunday after Peyton's party Jack seemed fine, but when Justin's parents told me that when they took him to lunch at McDonald's and he didn't want to eat anything, including french fries (his favorite food in the world)  I started to suspect something wasn't right.  After he got out of his bath that night he was running a fever :-(  I let him sleep as long as he could Monday morning, but when he woke up he came out of his room, found the remote control, handed it to me and climbed up in my lap...This is not normal Jack behavior so I called and got him a Dr appointment.  Luckily my parents and sister were still in town so they were able to help me by taking Peyton shopping.  Jack didn't want to do or eat anything and got sick about and hour or two before we were suppose to go to the Dr.  Come to find out the poor guy had strep.  They gave him a shot and by the following day he was feeling much better.  He was able to go back to school on Wednesday, but since he had been off school for over a week and was getting over being sick he had a rough first day back at school.  Just when I though things were back to normal Wednesday night I notice he had a rash on his back and chest.  Called the Dr on Thursday and they said it was strep rash. I am really hoping that we are done with illness for the next few weeks...knock on wood :-)

Peyton luckily didn't catch anything from Jack, but we kept a low profile this past week.  I took little lady to her 1 year check up and everything looked good.  She now weights 20 pounds 8 ounces and is 28 and a half inches long.  She is trying to talk more and we are having a blast watching all the new things she is trying to do.  She is really getting the hang of walking and loves to try and follow Jack around the house. 

April is Autism Awareness month and April 2nd is Light it up Blue.  People, business and land marks for one night light it up blue help spread awareness for autism.  We got our blue light and I wanted to spread the word to anyone else who might be interested to stop by your local Lowe's or Home Depot and buy you blue light. 

I wanted to share something I am very excited about.  I contacted my city and got asked to help write a proclamation to make April Autism Awareness month in the city of McKinney.  The major signed off on it and it went into effect.  I got to pick up my official copy last Friday:

Hope everyone has a great week!

Happy 1st Birthday Peyton!

It has been about a week now, but Peyton is now 1 year old! I can't believe that one year has flown by so quickly. It makes me happy and sad at the same time. My little lady is becoming a toddler, but she will always be my baby :-)
We have been very busy over the past week. Justin's folks came in last Wednesday and stayed with us until Sunday. They got to spend a lot of time with both Jack and Peyton because Jack was on spring break last week. My parents and sister arrived on Saturday and stayed with us until today. We had a birthday party on Saturday for Peyton with our family and some close friends. It was a fun afternoon and Peyton really enjoyed herself. She loves to eat so she really enjoyed her cake. She didn't give everyone that huge cake smash, she preferred to try and eat her cake using a fork and never really make a big mess. She really enjoyed opening her presents and we got some great pictures of her on her big day.
Hope everyone is having a great week and I will post again soon (hopefully) to write about Jack and his spring break.

Jack's First Dentist Appointment

We just got home from Jack's very first dentist appointment and it went really well.  He was really good when the hygienist brushed his teeth.  She used a multi-sided tooth brush and let him sit on a bench instead of making him sit in the big dentist chair.  She was very happy with how his teeth looked.  She said visually she didn't see any problem spots (cavities), that he had great spacing between his teeth, and that his gums looked good with no real plaque build up.  He was a little more irritated when they brushed the fluoride on his teeth but recovered quickly.  When the dentist came in to look at his teeth he climbed up in the big dentist chair and layed back in the chair all by himself.  He did not like it when she started to look at his teeth so we had to hold his head so that she could try and get a good look.  It took a few tries but she eventually got a few quick looks.  She said she saw what see need to see and that everything looked good.  They sent us home with the muti-sided tooth brush to make it easier for us to brush his teeth here at home.  I was very proud of how well he did and I'm sure with each visit he will get more use to the process.  He will be going back in September for another check-up and cleaning.

Peyton did pretty good too and only got upset a few time.  She was very happy when they gave her a "baoo" (balloon) to take home with her :-)  Hope everyone is having a good first day of March.  Down here in Dallas we are enjoying an beautiful 84 degree sunny day. 

It's been a while...

Sorry for not posting in such a long time, but we have had a lot going on the past few weeks.  Jack and I were working on getting well and then poor Peyton woke up Valentine's Day morning running a fever and coughing.  So its been a crazy couple of weeks of illnesses.  Justin seemed to be avoinging everything, but finally came down with a fairly bad cold.  I though I was in the clear and the strep is all gone, but now I have broke out in hives.  I apparently have had an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin :-(  Hopefully the hives will go away quickly and I now know that I am allergic to that type of medication.  

Peyton turned 11 months old and is learning more new things every day.  She can already identify some of her body parts and had learned to give and blow kisses, which is really cute.  She is always so excited when Justin comes home from work and starts saying dada over and over again.  She is already trying to mimic words and her newest word she had tried to say is balloon.  Justin bought her a valentines day balloon and she LOVES it.  She says baloo and wants to carry it around with her every were.  I have pictures of her bringing it in the bath tub with her...she never let it go :-)  I have started planning Peyton's birthday party and I still can't believe that is has already been one year since she was born. Time goes by fast.

Jack is doing great in school and has started talking and following directions more under instructional control.  They have been working on matching pictures and on motor imitation which is something Jack has always struggled with.  He is also getting bigger and sometimes seems taller over night.  After Peyon's party is complete it will be time for me to start planning my little man's 4th birthday.

I also had a birthday a few days ago.  It was a great weekend.  Justin took off Monday so we had a great three day weekend to relax and celebrate me turning 35 (holly cow I'm 35!)  Thanks to our good friends Chuck came over and babysat the kids so Justin and I could go out and have a very nice dinner with the kids.  I got a beautiful new necklace with a puzzle charm surrounded by each of my babies birthstones. 

Looking forward to seeing our family next month when they come in for Peyton's party.  I hope that everyone is having a nice week and I'll try and get back online again soon. 

What A Week!

Yesterday was an exciting day here in the Griggs house.  I have been fight what I though was just a really bad soar throat, but when Jack woke up with a high fever we made a trip to see the Dr.  Jack had a really bad sounding cough so I though he might have the croup.  Turns out we both have strep throat :-(  Poor guy didn't want to eat much of anything and was really tired.  He ended up taking a nap yesterday afternoon and is still sleeping this morning (since he didn't go to bed until around 11 last night). Hopefully the medicine will start to work over the weekend and he will start feeling better soon.  Justin was able to come home from work early to help He made the medicine run to target for us and made dinner. 

In other news, Peyton decided that since we were having such a rough day this would be the perfect day for her to take her first steps!  I was in the kitchen making myself a cup of tea and looked over and she starting to walk over to me.  I quickly grabbed the ipad and started video taping. We are so proud of her!  Hope everyone enjoys watching the video.

We are planning a very low key and relaxing weekend hoping that Jack and I start feeling better.  Hope everyone has managed to stay well and that you all enjoy your weekend!

Peyton's first steps

A quiet moment in time...

So this morning Jack decided it would be fun to wake up and start his day at 3:30 a.m. Luckily his sister did't get that memo and she slept closer to 6 (still early I know) but that has been our usual routine lately. Jack was in a great mood but almost fell asleep when we were on our way to school. It took everything I had within reason of not wrecking the car to keep him awake, and then his teacher quickly got him out of the car before he was able to completely fall asleep. I just picked up from school and they said he had a great day and never fell asleep. Of course that means he is taking a much needed nap now. Lucky for me Peyton is also napping. I don't really have many days that this happens since Jack gave up naps a while ago, but since serendipity has decided to smile on me today I figure...I'll take it :-)

It know the battle of waking him up still lies ahead of me, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Jack has been doing really well in school and we finally got him an iPad, merry Christmas Jack! He has been enjoying playing games, reading books and I have started to investigate some of the communication apps that are available.

Well,I'm going to take the few minutes I have left and fold some laundry and watch some tv Hope everyone's having a great week.

I want to say happy birthday to my BFF Kristin! Have a great day Friday miss you and wish I was closer so we could celebrate.